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Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

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Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#251

Post by BizarroLand »

fragmede wrote: post #204
DarrenDev wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a third option which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far: Ignore them. First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. These people do not pay for software, and nothing you do will convince them to pay for it. Secondly, whatever measures you put in place to combat the cracked versions will potentially have a negative impact on your actual paying users -…

> First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. I've heard this before but I'm not convinced this is actually true. Why? Because I use Netflix instead of torrent sites, and just accept the limitations of that format. Programs are tools vs of entertainment, but I don't know that the human psychology actually changes. A neat trick they did was to introduce downloading…

Look at Adobe, for instance.

A good portion of their user base got started using cracked copies of the software, as the price of something like the CS6 Master collection was well outside of the affordability of the average hobbyist.

But some of those teenage hobbyists grew up to go to college to expand on their Adobe tinkering to becoming professionals that sneer at people who use non-adobe products because of the price.

Businesses buy the software because that is what the talent is trained on. The difference between calling what Adobe has on the market a monopoly and an actual monopoly is probably only technicalities at this point.

Sure, most of this comes from the fact that their software really was the best of the best for the longest time, and their lead in technology and namesake is so far ahead of any of their competitors that it is laughable. their software was pirated obsessively because it was so good and so expensive, just like Waves $2,000 Mercury VST plugin suite.

There are other softwares, many of which are free or very affordable, that do 95%+ of what anything adobe or Waves does. But when you edit a photo with Gimp people will still instinctively say that you photoshopped it, and few people will ever care what plugins you used on an audio track if it's not autotune.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#252

Post by liquidify »

DarrenDev wrote: post #168
PreInternet01 wrote: post #29

Congratulations! Having cracked versions out there indicates that your software is both useful and notable, which is a point where many developers would love to arrive at, maybe, one day. As to what to do about it, there are two basic tracks, neither of which is incompatible with the other: 1. The legal route: notifying distribution sites that they're hosting content in violation of copyright law, requesting takedown…

There is a third option which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far: Ignore them. First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. These people do not pay for software, and nothing you do will convince them to pay for it. Secondly, whatever measures you put in place to combat the cracked versions will potentially have a negative impact on your actual paying users -…

I use cracked software until it is too useful or frustrating to use and the economics makes sense.

If you are making money from something or using it enough that you want support / reliability, pay for it and shame on you if you don't

Don't gimp your cracked stuff for the college kids and evening hacks just trying to see if they like something or if they can build its use into a business.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#254

Post by eps »

fxtentacle wrote: post #116

With newaudiotechnology.com we eventually switched to using USB sticks as dongles. The reason is that we noticed some paying users were cracking it, too, because our licensing system didn't allow dual boot or having a workstation and a laptop. But our licenses were supposed to be per user and people wanted to carry our software around with them. If setup correctly, the same USB stick is now used both as licensing don…

USB binding is fairly easy to bypass. Not script-kiddy level, granted, but it's still a matter of trampolining several API calls and then faking a presence of authorized USB device. At least on Windows.

The reason yours wasn't cracked is the lack of interest on skilled crackers' part.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#255

Post by xtracto »

thedougd wrote: post #56

I've recently reverse engineered a bunch of commercial software we pay for. They encrypt values in text configuration files and leave no way for us to template the configuration files with configuration management (Chef, Ansible, etc). Most of the time I'm working with Java. I've noticed several common patterns: 1) Typically obfuscation is not used, but even when it is used, it's easy to find what you're looking for.…

A long time ago, in a mexican company far far away we needed to download some files from a Bank to automate some process... but to do that the bank would force us to use some crappy custom client software that was windows only.

We reverse engineer it and it turned to be simply hitting a predefined endpoint for an encrypted file that then was encrypted with a hard coded custom script .

We happily extracted the auth data and setup a script that did the same in a cheap AWS linus box.

I think it's working well to this day, more than 10 years later.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#256

Post by coffeebeqn »

paxys wrote: post #115

Here's the standard playbook for dealing with this: - Let hobbyists and tiny companies pirate your software. You don't have to encourage it, but you can still turn a blind eye. They weren't going to pay you anyways, and this is a good way to get people familiar with your products. - Ruthlessly go after mid-large sized companies if you find their employees pirating your software. They have money to pay, and will be ha…

C) become a saas business

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#257

Post by comprev »

fragmede wrote: post #204
DarrenDev wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a third option which I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far: Ignore them. First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. These people do not pay for software, and nothing you do will convince them to pay for it. Secondly, whatever measures you put in place to combat the cracked versions will potentially have a negative impact on your actual paying users -…

> First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. I've heard this before but I'm not convinced this is actually true. Why? Because I use Netflix instead of torrent sites, and just accept the limitations of that format. Programs are tools vs of entertainment, but I don't know that the human psychology actually changes. A neat trick they did was to introduce downloading…

You likely use Netflix because you can afford it.

Would you still pick Netflix over torrents if it cost €100/month?

When I was a young teenager I used to rip CDs from the local library (who could get almost any CD in a week if ordered).

Now I spent a fair chunk of money on both digital and physical (vinyl) supporting artists - because I can afford it.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#258

Post by nibbleshifter »

Having cracked versions of your software out there is generally a sign of success.

None of the people using the cracked version would be potential current customers, but later on down the line they might become customers when they move to an environment where using a cracked version is not doable.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#259

Post by nibbleshifter »

BizarroLand wrote: post #251
fragmede wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, people or companies using the cracked version of your software were never going to buy it. I've heard this before but I'm not convinced this is actually true. Why? Because I use Netflix instead of torrent sites, and just accept the limitations of that format. Programs are tools vs of entertainment, but I don't know that the human psychology actually changes. A neat trick they did was to introduce downloading…

Look at Adobe, for instance. A good portion of their user base got started using cracked copies of the software, as the price of something like the CS6 Master collection was well outside of the affordability of the average hobbyist. But some of those teenage hobbyists grew up to go to college to expand on their Adobe tinkering to becoming professionals that sneer at people who use non-adobe products because of the pr…

It's the same with IDA Pro.

Its completely unaffordable to the student or hobbyist, the "home edition" is too limited to be useful, so everyone starting out uses a cracked version because its been the de-facto industry standard tool since forever for reverse engineering.

Later when those people get jobs, they become another paying (through work) licensed user of IDA Pro.

What's slowly fucking IDA now is finally there are alternatives, the NSA open sourced Ghidra which can replace IDA to some extent - so smaller customers (who were always treated poorly anyway) are moving away from their product.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#260

Post by throwaway932874 »

OP here. I want to thank everyone for their comments, contributions and suggestions! The HN community definitely came through on this.

Some general answers:

- An important point that I missed: we offer trial licenses.

- If necessary, we work with the customer to establish payment plans. Apparently it even happened today!

- The crack is being hosted on a site dedicated to cracked software, so I'm not sure if DMCA applies. (I'll have to read up on it.)

I'll take note of those who offered some help in case we'd like to work with you.

(Edit: Fixed comment layout for legibility.)

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